Big Wins for PRX and Radiotopia at Third Coast
On Saturday, we attended the annual Third Coast / Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Competition awards ceremony, which honors the ‘best audio stories produced worldwide’. PRX and Radiotopia were excited to take home three awards! Read on to learn about the winners and hear the audio pieces.
Best News Feature Award
Standing Out from the Crowd at a Trump Rally, from Reveal
“Where are you from?” can be an earnest question. But it also can be used as a divisive political tool that plays on people’s fears of the other. In this piece, producer Ike Sriskandarajah hears this rhetoric reverberate before, during and after a Tea Party convention in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Ike met, chatted and even rode with the Knights Templar, a motorcycle club throwing its support to Donald Trump this election season. These bikers take their name from a medieval group of holy warriors who protected Christianity. And today, they still are concerned about the threat of Islamic extremism. This piece was produced by Ike Sriskandarajah and edited by Kevin Sullivan and Deb George.
Best Documentary: Bronze
Blink Once for Yes, from Love + Radio
When Mike comes home, his family is faced with a new reality and an impossible choice. This is the story of the Fecile family, and the hardest decision of their lives. The piece xplores the effects of a traumatic brain injury. It was produced by John Fecile, Steven Jackson and Lizzie Schiffman Tufano, and edited by Nick van der Kolk.
Best Documentary: Silver
Majd’s Diary, from Radio Diaries
Majd Abdulghani is a teenager living in Saudi Arabia, one of the most restrictive countries for women in the world. She wants to be a scientist. Her family wants to arrange her marriage. From the ages of 19 to 21, Majd has been chronicling her life with a microphone, taking us inside a society where the voices of women are rarely heard. She records herself practicing karate, conducting experiments in a genetics lab, and fending off pressure to accept an arranged marriage. In her audio diary, Majd documents everything from arguments with her brother about how much she should cover herself in front of men, to late night thoughts about loneliness, arranged marriages, and the possibility of true love. This piece was produced by Sarah Kramer, Joe Richman and Nellie Gilles, and edited by Deborah George and Ben Shapiro.
See more photos from our trip to Third Coast on PRX’s Facebook page.
